W.A.Mozart - Sonatas In Four Hands For Harpsichord, P.Ayrton, W.Gluxam

Mozart's keyboard works for four hands feature among the most delightful and entertaining of his compositions. Indeed, a favourite family pastime was to play duets on a harpsichord or pianoforte. The young Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl apparently spent many happy hours playing together on the same keyboard. This we learn about from the English music historian and traveller Charles Burney reporting in 1772 : «By a letter from Salzburg (...) I am informed that this young man, who so much astonished all Europe by his premature knowledge and performance, during infancy, is still a great master of his instrument. My correspondent went to his father's house to hear him and his sister play duets on the same harpsichord.»
In the sonatas recorded for this CD, humour and ease - generally significant for Mozarts's character - also appear in a very specific form. We know from his letters that he had an extreme sense of humour, and it is this we find even in compositions where he teases and intermingles the hands of the performers. We believe that this artful device of coquetry cleverly woven in the polyphonic texture is neither unintentional nor ungainly.
We decided to use a harpsichord for these recordings as we are convinced that this instrument played a more defining role in the life of the composer than one would be led to believe. This is evident in that as early as 1770 Leopold, Wolfgang's father, had acquired a harpsichord, already mentioned in Burney's letter, and last but not least from the indications «Cembalo 1» and «Cembalo 2» in the autographs of the K 501 and 521 sonatas. On the whole , in our view the harpsichord seems to have been the ideal instrument for the appropriate rendering of this type of composition.

Patrick Ayrton was born in 1961 in London. He studied organ with Alfred Mitterhofer at the Academy of Music and Figurative Art in Vienna and harpsichord with Ton Koopman at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he has become himself a teacher. A prize-winner at the «Paul Hofhaimer competition)) in Innsbruck (1983) and «Musica Antiqua» in Brugge (1985), Patrick Ayrton performs regularly with the «Orchestre d'Auvergne» and has recorded works by William Byrd and J. S. Bach for GLOBE. He appears in «Sir Francis Tregian : Gentleman and Musicians, a documentary film by the Swiss author Anne Cuneo. He is currently living in Burgundy.

Wolfgang Gluxam studied at the Sweelinck-Conservatory of Amsterdam with Ton Koopman and at the Academy of Music and Figurative Art in Vienna with Alfred Mitterhofer. Since 1985 he has been teaching at the Viennese University of Music and Figurative Art. His concert tours as harpsichord soloist and continuo player have taken him throughout Europe, South America and Japan. He has also made radio and CD recordings.